SEATTLE — Startled awake at 6am in his Issaquah home, Kellen McKinney woke up to a nightmare situation.
"It's awkward, I'm in bed without a shirt on and she's just in here," said McKinney.
It was a woman in his bedroom. McKinney initially thought she could be a contractor and said hello.
"She awkwardly said hello back and walk out and closed the door."
McKinney said the woman ran away and he immediately called 911. The burglars were in McKinney's home for a total of eight minutes. In that time, they stole irreplaceable items, including two of his guitars, a cigar box filled with cards and old concert tickets.
"My school backpack, had my laptop, my personal laptop at least," said McKinney. They also took his wallet and credit cards.
"Thankfully, I immediately cancelled because a half-hour later they tried to spend money on them," McKinney said.
It's an unusual situation merely based on the time of day it happened. The King County Sheriff's Office said homes are normally daytime targets whereas commercial businesses are most often burglarized overnight.
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, most surrounding cities similar to Issaquah are seeing an increase in burglaries from the year before. Looking at their quarterly data, Bellevue had 135 burglaries in 2021, that number rose to 189 this year. Kent had 206 in 2021 and 410 so far this year. Seattle on the other hand has seen a decrease, with about 300 fewer burglaries this quarter compared to last year.
"I am at the moment more frustrated and angry at them. Angry with them, frustrated that it feels like yet another setback," said McKinney.
As a preventative measure, McKinney put dowels in the sliding glass windows and now sleeps near a metal bat for "just a little bit of emotional security."